For some stars never fade

It was mid-July. The sky was clear and he was there, sitting on the wall of his balcony, gazing at stars, making patterns. He was deep in thoughts when he heard a door open in distance. 'They must be home', he thought. There was indistinct chattering downstairs, and he heard the movement of chairs in somewhere near the kitchen, definitely in kitchen, he soon realised. No one has noticed his absence, maybe he wasn't supposed to be here, after all, he thought when suddenly he heard the door of the balcony open and he sensed movement behind him. He knew who it was, why had she come and with what in her mind. She slid down beside him, and kept quiet for a while, waiting for him to say something.

“Why did you come with them, Valeria and is your mom okay with the fact that you are in my house, this late at night?” The boy asked without looking at the girl. “Caiden, I have come to talk to you. Your mom and dad are sick worried that you have become such a room dweller and a night owl and they want to talk to you if you want to. Dear tell me what's wrong with you, I swear I shall not let anyone know that.” Valeria replied, pulling her hair behind the ear.

“Promise on Styx?”

“On Styx.”

“Valeria, you know right that grandpa died last week?” Caiden said, exhaling. “Yeah, I do. Is this all this is all about? I mean I know that you have many more things that bother you, but is this the main reason?” Valeria replied, a little impatiently.

“No, it is one of the reasons for my surliness, but not the only. My friends think I am traitor and the one to spill all their beans. They gave me a goddamn letter sort of thing, with the sign of each one of them, stating that ‘Dear Caiden, please leave our group. We have been having trouble to talk to our real friends and people like you shall not be the part of us’ and stuff like that.” He said making the quoting gesture from his fingers.

“Oh my! Piss those bastards off Caiden; you are way better than what they think of you. I have been with you for like what, 12 years maybe? And until now I honestly have heard nothing bad about you like this sort. They do not value you for what you are! Get over them, honestly, we are better off alone, just you and me. That’s how we’ve been for all these years, and we have nothing wrong between us.” Valeria said furiously, punching an imaginary figure in thin air.

“But don’t you see they are right… I am doing the same what they said I did to them, just this time; it was not my mouth to speak but my gestures to display all the darkness within me. Being a grown-up teen of fifteen, I must have known better to hide my feelings and pretend everything was normal. Now I have my parents worried, you are angry and the whole thing makes sense now,” Caiden spoke heavily, uninflected of the mad, raw anger beside him, “that I am no one on my own. I always have been living in the shadows of people. My earlier group was a group of high scorers, and I was the only one with the least knowledge about almost everything.” He was exhausted and needed rest, but he knew that Valeria would not let him even shut his eyes close for more than a second until she was satisfied with him, which, he most dearly cherished as one of her qualities; not giving up on people easily. “Madison, the kinda leader of the group is maybe the smartass brain in our class, but I sensed him, the very moment he stepped in, five years ago, that he was going to be something more than just a freaking classmate. He would try to take on all over us, and the girls, oh gosh! Most of them were flattered instantly. Dunno what the heck they saw in him.”

Valeria was thinking hard. She had to make him see the reason that he was being totally unreasoning. She thought for a while, and when she couldn’t come up with an idea to cheer him up, she just asked, “Anything else Caiden, that has been bothering you?” Just to break the nasty silence between them. Caiden replied, for the first time looking at her, “Lots, my lady but enough for one night. Also, might I add, you remember Jess?”

“Yeah, I do. What about her?”

“She was a great friend of mine. We were sort of dating, not exactly but. Her parents found out about it and had her grounded, and we haven’t talked for like two months now, which adds another layer of misery to my story”

Valeria tried not to laugh so her full-blown laugh came out like a snort, followed by a grunt. Now she had lost her control, and for Caiden, this completely unexpected reaction was surprising. He didn’t say a word until Valeria had got back to normal from that pang of laughter.  

“What was that for?” Caiden asked in complete amusement. “I am so sorry Caiden, but your story reminded me of the one my mom told me when I was a kid. There was a young man, torn off from all the luxuries of life. He was orphan and had no friends, and when he tried making some, every one of them used to cheat on him, use him for their purpose and then left him to wither and rot on the street. Once he came across a bush of violets that were like him, withered and rotting. He saw them for a very brief moment and then continued on his way. Soon he came back a week later, and he saw that all the dry petals were decorated on the ground and there were new, much prettier and more beautiful flowers on that bush. He learned something that no one else could have taught him.” And that’s where Valeria paused, creating just enough mystery to stir Caiden up. She knew the only way to get Caiden working again was to tell anything, leave it in just the right time, not giving much information, but enough to ponder upon, and then she spoke up again, “Caiden, look into your life, put yourself in a situation like that dude from the story and think what he found out.”

Caiden made a revolting look, only to be calmed again by the sweet smile of Valeria. He spoke with deliberation, “Val, you know I can’t sleep now that you have told me something to be pondering on.”

“Were you going to sleep anyway?”

“No, but that now that I have a reason to be awake, I won’t be able to sleep. You have stirred a sleeping giant.”

Valeria got up massaging her hips, “Dude, how were you sitting that long without feeling pain? My ass hurts like hell!”

“Until you mentioned I didn’t feel the pain myself lol!” Caiden said, smiling for the first time since Valeria had come.

All the exhaustion within Valeria took a leap when she saw Caiden smile. Over flowed by joy, she hugged him hard and whispered into his clothes, “Caiden, don’t treat yourself hard. I love you the way you are. Stay like you are. Don’t change yourself for some stupid morons.”

Caiden was quick to react and he pulled her into the hug they were already in, just a little tighter this time, “Thanks a lot Val for cheering me up. I dunno what I would ever be without you in my life.”

“You will always have me, no matter what,” Valeria replied with her arms around Caiden’s neck. She kissed him on the cheek and bid him farewell with wishes to get better.

Two months had passed by since that night. Caiden had completed his tests and was finally promoted to the next grade. In the night, after his results were declared, he was sitting on the same spot, under the night sky, just what was different was that this time; he knew why he was there. Valeria, like the very night two months ago, slipped beside him, and intertwined her fingers with his. She was excited to talk to him; finally to the friend she always loved. “So how was your day?” she asked.

“It was worth the wait. The moment I entered my class, everyone came in to congratulate me, and I had no idea for what. Then, remember Paisley? Her parents congratulated and told me that I had shared the highest marks with Madison. When he heard this, it completely wiped that dumb smirk off his face, which turned into an expression of fear later. I met him afterwards and congratulated him for sharing the first position with me. Said I was happy to share ranks with him, but you should have seen his face, pure disbelief. Never would he have imagined me, standing against him in a competition, he thought I was way too weak to try and tackle him.”   

Valeria was happy for Caiden that he had found his true self after this long. “I am really happy for you Caiden. I knew you were way better than those dumbasses.”

Caiden smiled and spoke all of a sudden, which startled Valeria. “Now I understand what the boy from your mom’s story would have understood. ‘Good things fall apart to make a place for even better ones to come into your life.’ Thank you, Val, again, for believing in me even when I felt broken and torn. Now I know what to do, how to handle life and let go of messed up people. Thank you. I love you.”

“I love you too Caiden” Valeria said, just like a princess woken up from her sleep to find her prince.

And they held hand for the night, looking into the skies, for the stars to connect all that life had brought them. Caiden then realized, ‘some stars disappear, but they never fade away’ and that those stars would always light his darkest nights.